By Desire Emmanuel with Agency Reports
Dolly Parton, who rose from a loving if impoverished upbringing in the mountains of East Tennessee to become the “Queen of Country” music, a Hollywood star and a beloved American icon, has died at the age of 80, her family announced on Tuesday, August 25.
Parton’s nephew, Brian Seaver, announced the news in a video posted on her Instagram. He did not provide details about her death, according to NBC News.
“My name is Brian Seaver, son of Cassie Parton, and I’m representing the Parton and Owens family today announcing the passing of my aunt, Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean, Sister, Sis and Granny to one generation and Gigi to the next,” Seaver said in the video.
“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality. As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven’t truly felt it til now,” he added.
Seaver added that Dolly “lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents, and countless others.”
Her death comes after Parton suddenly announced in May 2026 that she was canceling a Las Vegas show and said she’d been undergoing treatment for kidney stones for several years.
“Lord, they dig more stones out of me a year than the rock quarry in Rockwood, Tennessee,” Parton said in a statement.
“But seriously, my immune system and my digestive system got all out of whack over the past couple three years, and they’re working real hard on rebuilding and strengthening those and hopefully I’ll be up to snuff again soon,” she added.
During her more than 60-year career, Parton sold more than 100 million records and won 11 Grammy Awards, making her one of the bestselling musical performers of all time.
Parton also became a star on the silver screen, gaining a whole new audience and critical acclaim when she brought her Southern charm to movies like “9 to 5” (she wrote and sang the theme song), “Steel Magnolias” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”
Bedecked in blonde bouffant hairdos and never without her makeup, Parton also became one of the nation’s best known brands who parried questions about her hourglass figure and augmented breasts with her signature self-deprecating wit.
“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” Parton once said.
Parton was also a businesswoman who amassed an estimated $650 million fortune and maintained creative control in the cutthroat and male-dominated music industry.
She presided over an entertainment empire that included the Dollywood theme park. And she was a devoted philanthropist who launched the Dollywood Foundation to provide poverty relief and fund educational programs in her native East Tennessee.
